


I Would Kiss You Even If You Were Dead

by neadevar



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood and Gore, M/M, They do the sex in the future, Vampire Hunter Keith, Vampire Shiro, Vampires, background lance/hunk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-07-14 14:31:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16042388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neadevar/pseuds/neadevar
Summary: Life tended to be difficult enough as it was, Keith had accepted this as fact at a young age. Juggling a job (one that hardly paid above minimum wage), a social life, and trying to keep up with rent and bills left little in terms of complete and utter relaxation. Free time was spent cleaning the apartment, making sure there was food in the fridge, and (if Keith was lucky) maybe a small nap.Or, you know, hunting vampires. That was apparently a normal thing in Keith’s normal life.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The name was a toss up between this and Love Bites but So Do I but I felt like that title was probably used. Thanks to Pierce the Veil for the title. I'm still such an emo kid.

Life tended to be difficult enough as it was, Keith had accepted this as fact at a young age. Juggling a job (one that hardly paid above minimum wage), a social life, and trying to keep up with rent and bills left little in terms of complete and utter relaxation. Free time was spent cleaning the apartment, making sure there was food in the fridge, and (if Keith was lucky) maybe a small nap.

Or, you know, hunting vampires. That was apparently a normal thing in Keith’s normal life.

He blamed Lance one hundred percent.

“Whoever they are, they’re getting more active.” 

Lance was hunched over a map of their city. It was a small paper, but red marker dots were littered across it. Murder dots, Keith had called it. Lance had scowled at him and poked his cheek with the marker in retaliation. The dots marked where bodies had been found the past few months. It had started out with hikers, their corpses found off the beaten path and mutilated by wildlife, nothing too sinister there. It was easy to blame it on animal attacks. Bears were more than common. Hikers being idiots and making their own trail was far too common as well. Lance was willing to pass off the first two bodies as a coincidence, even if Keith had a terrible feeling about it. The third was suspicious, but maybe the bears were hungry.

It took the homeless man in the park, with his throat ripped open, for Keith to get Lance on board and to start mapping the deaths. As the bodies started racking up, big game hunters in the area grew more active, quick to blame it on the wildlife. Consequently, more deaths followed. It was a vicious cycle. One that Keith watched constantly on the news and felt his stomach grow more and more heavy as the days passed and the bodies piled up.

But that was what Keith and Lance were for. At least that’s what they  _ would  _ be for. There was absolutely no pattern to the killings. The majority happened in the woods but there were deaths throughout the city as well. Lance and Keith quickly came to the conclusion that it was a coven, no one vampire or even two could feed as often as this even with the intention to get blood drunk, but covens usually stuck to a set of rules to keep safe and out of sights of hunters. A coven of jackasses, Lance had decided. Keith had a horrible feeling. Something big was coming. He could feel with every breath he took.

He just hoped they could handle it.

Keith rapped his knuckles against the back of Lance’s head to get his attention. “It’s late. You need to sleep. Let me work on this for a while.”

Lance ran a hand across his face with a sigh. He stared down at his half empty mug tiredly. “Fuck off, I’ll just go make some more coffee.”

“Lance, you idiot, you need to leave for work in four hours.”

Keith knew it was going to take more than an argument to get Lance into bed. The man fought back at him whenever he got the chance, had since his family had taken Keith in. Keith used to think he hated him. Now he just knew that it was what kept Lance entertained. Plus, he was actually kind of nice when he wanted to be. Even if their friendship was based more on rivalry than anything else it was entertaining at least. There was never a dull moment in their shared apartment.

Keith shoved Lance off the chair, not even flinching when his friend landed in a way that couldn’t be comfortable. It was his own damn fault anyhow. “Bed. Now.”

It spoke millions to how tired the man was that he didn’t bother fighting back more. There was lots of glaring, lots of insults, but Keith ultimately won. Lance looked ready for murder. Mostly he looked ready to pass out. Lance grumbled the entire way to his room, but Keith didn’t spare him another glance. His attention was entirely focused to the dots on the map, his fingers already shuffling through paperwork about the murders Lance may or may not have gotten illegally. Keith had his sources as well, Lance was just more keen on using them then the other was. It was easier to fight vampires with all the information, Lance reasoned. Keith thought it was easier just to face it head on and deal with the consequences later. Less innocent people got hurt that way. Lance was right this time around though. It was hard to storm a coven when you didn’t even know  _ where  _ the coven might be. Staking out in the forest was stupid, Lance had shot that down almost immediately. 

“Alright,” He muttered under his breath, stealing the mug of coffee Lance had left behind and taking a sip. It was cold, and he fought back a grimace. “Let’s see what we got here.”

  
  
  
  


Keith had know Lance almost all his life. Not that he had a choice in the matter. Lance’s aunt Marie had found him during a hunt, barely three months old and cradled in the arms of a man who had been bitten and left to die from blood loss. Why they left Keith alone and alive no one knew. But they had, and Marie took him in and raised him. 

Keith grew up training to fight and kill and most of all protect himself from things that went bump in the night. Most kids had cute and innocent bedtime stories read to them at night. Marie told him stories of past hunts, ones that went well and ones that went horribly wrong. Stories laced with death and blood and horror and Keith absolutely soaked it all in. In retrospect, Marie definitely didn’t know how to take care of kids. But she taught him how to stay alive and for that Keith couldn’t even begin to hate how he was raised.

Lance was over often but it took years for Keith to actually bother getting to know him, and that was only after Lance had challenged him to a water gun fight and Keith had actually lost. 

He made it a point after that to never lose again.

Lance continued to find competition where there was none, and Keith mostly humoured him. When they started hunting themselves that too became a game. One that continued on today and one that Keith was absolutely winning.

Keith was dangerous, he knew it, Lance knew it, his whole family knew it. He had a kill count that had surpassed Marie and he was known to come home barely hurt. He had his scars of course, bite marks that stung for days and a set of claw marks that left a particularly nasty scar across his middle. Compared to Lance, with all his scars and multiple broken bones, he was near invincible. Even so, what Keith might lack in a fight Lance made up for and vice versa. It was a no brainer that the two worked well together and what had first started out as a competition became a partnership.

Keith was still surprised about it. The two of them were complete opposites and barely got along, but he knew Lance had his back in a fight. He himself would gladly lay down his own life if it meant Lance got to go home safe. Reckless, Lance told him repeatedly. He just figured he was protective.

Lance was his only family, practically his only friend, Keith would be crazy to not want to protect him at all costs. Especially from his own stupidity.

He felt he was failing quite a lot in that regard though, especially lately. 

When Lance got home from work that next day it was in a complete panic. He rolled through the apartment like a tornado, needlessly straightening pictures and books and staring a little too hard at a hole in the wall from when the two of them had gotten into a drunken tussle (whose fist went through the wall had been a fight for the past few months and would continue to be one for years to come).

Keith was so confused, and buried his nose into his papers harder to try and ignore the absolute mess Lance was right then. 

“Hunk’s coming over!”

Keith looked up with a scowl, bags underneath his bloodshot eyes. “Not even a ‘hello’? Or ‘hows the illegal investigation going’?”

Lance didn’t even respond to that, just flew through the house and gathering every evidence of what they had been doing the past few weeks up. Weapons, maps, markers, he piled them in his arms with the face and fury of a madman on a cocaine rush. It would be entertaining, almost, if Keith hadn’t been up all night was was about to drop dead asleep at any given moment. As it was he was growing increasingly annoyed with Lance’s antics and his stupid ass crush on  _ Keith’s  _ coworker. 

“He’ll be here any moment! Help me!”

Keith stood up out of his chair and stretched his arms high above his head. His spine popped and cracked and screamed in pain after having been hunched over for so long. He wanted nothing more then to go and take a hot shower immediately and then collapse into bed. Instead, he started piling up his maps and put the police copies back into their folders to take to his room. The doorbell rang and Lance honest to god shrieked. Keith nearly dropped everything in shock at the noise.

Lance shoved his items into Keith’s arms. “He’s going to make dinner!”

“This is getting pathetic. Have you asked him out yet?”

“What? No. What?!  _ No _ !” Lance looked seconds away from passing out.

Keith glared at him. “Go answer the door, I’ll go put these away.”

“You’re the best, man. Thank you.  _ Shit! _ ”

A wooden dagger came sailing at Keith’s head, and he only just managed to dodge it. “What the actual  _ fuck  _ Lance?!”

“Hide it!”

Keith didn’t have the hands to grab it, so he left it on the floor while he took what he had into his room. He shoved it all underneath his bed, wincing when he heard the papers crinkle. He could hear Lance and Hunk talking, Lance was laughing a little too loud and hard at something Hunk had said. He hurried out of his room to grab the dagger. Fingers wrapped around the hilt and he turned to chuck it in his room.

“Hey, Keith!”

Fuck.

Keith turned around, making sure to keep the dagger hidden behind his back. “Hey! Hunk!”

“I’m making homemade tortellini, that alright?”

“That’s great, actually,” Keith shoved the dagger down the back of his pants as Hunk got a little closer. “We haven’t had a home cooked meal in forever.”

“That’s why you’re both so scrawny,” Hunk’s face screwed up. “I’m not sure Lance ever eats.”

“He really likes chips and salsa.”

“That is not a meal.”

“You try telling him that.”

“It has all your basic food groups!” Lance shouted, exiting the kitchen. “Vegetables, grains, fruits if its my mama’s peach salsa, sprinkle some cheese on it and you’ve got your dairy.”

“Protein, Lance?” Hunk asked with a grin.

“That’s what bean dip is for,  _ duh! _ ”

“I’m amazed you’re still alive.”

Keith was too, but for vastly different reasons. He wonder if Hunk ever asked about the many scars Lance had over his skin. He wondered what Lance’s excuse was. Vampire hunting wasn’t exactly an easy job and it tended to show that in the form of nearly life threatening wounds and various broken bones and bruises.

Hunk looked at Keith a little more closely, eyes narrowing in concern. “When is the last time you slept?”

Keith ran a hand over his face and sighed a little. “It’s been like two days. I’ll crash after dinner.”

“You can crash before, I’ll make extras so you get some.”

“It’s fine,” Keith waved a hand. “If you think I’m going to miss a warn homemade meal you’re crazy.”

Keith watched Hunk venture into the kitchen and snuck away back into his room to put away the dagger before he ended up sitting on it and stabbing his ass. He himself made his way towards the kitchen afterward. He was not going to miss a moment of Lance’s complete idiocy.

He wasn’t let down. Watching the two cook together was hard to watch but so worth it. Lance was doing pretty well at fucking everything up but Hunk just smiled and put it all back together again. It was cute, kind of, watching them giggle like school children with flour smeared all over their clothes.

It was also king of disgusting, watching them pine over each other and being so completely oblivious about it. They were absolutely hopeless. He wanted to smush their faces together and tell them to get on with it because watching it happen was painful. Lance would actually murder him though. 

“We almost had to call you in today,” Hunk told Keith. “It was crazy busy.”

Keith scrunched up his face. “I’m glad you didn’t. I’m starting to really hate making coffee.”

“It’s better than retail,” Lance butt in. “I promise.”

“That’s just because you work for a big corporation,” Hunk patted Lance on the back. “Little mom and pop shops are where it’s at. Our boss actually cares.”

“When he’s in the coffee shop that is,” Keith muttered.

Hunk winced. “So he cares sometimes then.”

When dinner was finally done Keith could have cried with happiness. He was so hungry and so tired and he just wanted to eat so he could go to bed and finally sleep. He had the early morning shift with Hunk and he  _ needed  _ at least a few hours of sleep so he didn’t bite anyone at work.

“Oh my god,” Lance moaned over a mouthful or tortellini. “Hunk, man, I need you to marry me.”

Hunk blushed hard, but Lance was too busy fawning over his food to notice. Keith wanted to slap them both.

The food was pretty good though, and Keith made sure to let Hunk know. At the end of the night Hunk refused to take any home. He claimed they needed it more then him. It only took one look at Lance’s scrawny ass to agree and stop trying to shove pasta at the man. 

“He’s so beautiful,” Lance whispered after Hunk shut the door. “I’m in so deep.”

“He could be in you so deep if you actually asked him out,” Keith muttered.

He got a shoe thrown at his head for that. 

  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

The investigation was going nowhere, and eventually Keith and Lance ran out of food in the house to sustain them. They had lived on stale crackers the previous day before they gave in and decided someone had to go grocery shopping. Keith had the day off. Keith was unlucky.

Keith made sure to ‘forget’ salsa just to spite Lance.

Arms weighed down with groceries, Keith sent his friend a quick text to let him know he was on his way home before barely managing to shove his phone into his pocket without dropping it. He really only picked up the bare essentials. Bread, soy milk (Lance hated real milk), sandwich meat, and some odds and ends. They really didn’t make enough for luxury food and while Lance was definitely put out about it Keith was used to living cheap. Besides, now that Hunk was quickly becoming a fixture in their lives if they wanted something amazing they could always rely on him. He could make a five star meal out of one star ingredients. Keith was convinced it was some sort of magic. Lance just thought he was perfect like that

Disgusting, really. Keith didn’t know how much longer he could put up with  _ that.  _

It was a short walk back home, maybe fifteen minutes, but it was definitely chilly and Keith wished he would have brought his jacket. His bare arms were covered in goosebumps and his teeth were tightly clenched to keep them from chattering. Cold wind brushed his hair from his face and left his nose frozen and sore. A wooden dagger dug into his back but he didn’t have a hand free to adjust it. Normally he wouldn’t bother arming himself before leaving the house. It wasn’t necessary. He could fight his way out of almost any situation and when it came to vampires they didn’t attack in broad daylight. All the murders had him on edge, though, and he wasn’t about to let himself become the next victim.

He heard cursing from the ally in front of him and stilled. Struggling, he managed to pull his phone out from his pocket. He swiped on his flashlight so he could see into the dark. It was probably someone homeless, or a group of shitty kids, but as Lance said when he had grabbed his weapon this morning he was a little paranoid. Keith krept a little closer, keeping his footsteps as light as possible and trying not to sway the plastic bags too much.

“Look, I don’t have any-.”

“All I want is your wallet. You gonna hand that over cripple?”

Keith relaxed considerably. Just another regular mugging. Nothing too uncommon, especially around this area. That he could handle easily. He stepped in front of the ally and shined his flashlight out on the two figures.

“The cops have always already been called,” Keith bluffed, hoping to scare the asshole off. “You should probably get the hell out.”

He wasn’t able to get a good look at the mugger that came running out from the ally, stepping aside to let the rugged teenager book it past him. That wasn’t too important though. Hopefully being caught once would scare him enough to never do it again. He sighed as he watched the kid sprint away and shook his head before peering back in.

“You need some help?” Keith asked the man on the ground. 

He didn’t look phased, slowly sitting up and brushing off his dark shirt with one hand. His only hand, Keith noted. That explained the cripple comment from earlier. Though with the muscles on the man he wasn’t entirely sure missing an arm would have actually been an issue when fighting off the mugger. He had dark hair, a mop of white in the front that Keith thought was an odd style choice. But it was Oregon, there were a lot of odd style choices especially in his town. It didn’t even look half bad, Keith decided. Odd, but a good kind of odd. 

“I’ve got it,” the man told him, voice deep and assuring.

As the man stood up Keith went to turn off his flashlight, before freezing. The man’s eyes  _ flashed  _ when the light ran across them.

Groceries and phone fell to the concrete, and Keith reached behind himself for his weapon already moving. Before he could use it a hand flew out and knocked it from his grasp, grabbing him by his throat and  _ lifting  _ him. He was thrown hard against the wall of the building next to them. Feet kicked, not reaching the ground. 

Fuck, fuck,  _ fuck! _

“Hunter,” the man said, eyes level with Keith’s as he studied his face. 

He was handsome, Keith had to give him that, but most vampires were. It was easy to get distracted by a pretty face. It made it easier to lure in victims, or catch a hunter off of their guard. His own hands were wrapped around the man’s wrist. Fingernails dug into the skin but the vampire didn’t even flinch. Keith looked over to where his weapon had fallen. Some good that had done him. He had been too slow. Too relaxed _.  _ He was so sure it was just a regular mugging that he had let his guard down and now it was going to kill him if he couldn’t figure out a way to get out of this situation. Maybe if he had put his groceries down first, he could have been quicker. Maybe if he had his stake positioned differently. Maybe if he’d been more armed.

Keith bared his teeth, frustrated with all of the maybes that were going to kill him. “Vampire.”

“I’m not here to hurt anyone,” the man told him, face soft as if he were telling the truth. Deceiving, cunning, spouting words Keith had heard a hundred times before even when they had a body at their feet and blood dripping from their mouths. 

“Tell that to all of those bodies in the news,” he hissed.

The man lowered him enough to let his feet touch the ground, and Keith knew that was his chance. He struck out with his leg, foot catching the man in the stomach and shoving him back. The hand left his throat as the man fell back and Keith quickly went for his dagger. With a man this size he knew he didn’t stand a very good chance without being armed. He could feel the raw strength in those hands that had wrapped around his neck. He needed every advantage he could get. Before he could reach it something heavy landed against his back, and he found himself on the ground with the vampire on top of him. His fingertips caught the weapon and he twisted, feeling his hips pop and grind in protest when the vampire didn’t budge. A hand reached to grab his wrist before he could strike but it was too slow and the sharp edge of the wood carved into a shoulder. 

The vampire stumbled off of him and Keith lost his grip on his blade. He was on his feet in seconds preparing to defend himself. 

The vampire just hissed and pulled the weapon out from his shoulder, looking more annoyed than it did in pain.

“I didn’t kill anyone,” the vampire told him, sounding exasperated. “That’s why I’m  _ here.  _ I want to figure out what they’re doing just as much as you do.”

“You  _ know  _ them?” Keith was running out of patience.

“You could say that,” He didn’t sound happy about it at all. “I’m here to stop them. I’m not looking for trouble. And I’m certainly not looking for a stake in my chest.”

The vampire tossed the weapon back at Keith, who’s eyebrows furrowed at the response. He just gave Keith the one thing that could end his mockery of a life like he wouldn’t take the chance to run him through.

“I won’t be here for long,” he told Keith. “Just long enough to stop the murders and then I’ll be on my way. I won’t be a problem.”

And then he turned around and left.

Keith watched him go, chest heaving, everything in him screaming at him to grab his dagger and run the vampire through. Instead, incredibly confused, he picked up his fallen groceries and his now cracked phone and headed home thinking about what he had just heard.

  
  
  


Keith was absolutely  _ pissed  _ with himself. So furious his fingers trembled. He likely had a culprit of at least one of the murders right in front of him and he just  _ let him go.  _ He just let him walk away just like that. He was dangerous, had to be to be able to take Keith on so easily. He didn’t like to brag but he had a pretty large tally count when it came to hunters. It wasn’t necessarily something he felt he should be proud of but he  _ knew  _ he was a force to be reckoned with. And that vampire had taken him by surprise so easily.

Lance noticed his sour mood almost immediately. “Who pissed in your coffee?”

“Shouldn’t you be at work,” Keith grumbled, dropping the groceries on the counter. 

“They let me go early,” Lance started digging through the bags. “Seriously, no salsa?”

Keith placed a tub of coffee in the cabinet wishing he could run Lance through with a kitchen knife.

“Seriously, Keith. What’s wrong?”

Leaning against the cabinet door a little he weighed what he was going to say. It was probably best to omit some things from his story. Like the fact that he  _ let  _ a fucking vampire  _ get away.  _ Lance deserved to know he ran into the thing though. If only so he himself could be more prepared. 

“I ran into a vampire,” Keith said simply. Carefully. “And he got away before I could kill him.”

Keith refused to admit his mistake, especially not to Lance. As far as he was concerned his roommate could believe he put up a fight but didn’t quite finish the job. Not that he just stood there  in the alleyway and watched the fucker walk off like he hadn’t just been stabbed in the shoulder.

Lance eyed the scraped up mess that was Keith’s cheeks and said blandly. “He got away. From you. You mean to tell me you got in a scuffle and the vampire just ran away letting you live.”

Keith slammed the cabinet door shut, watching it bounce back towards him and narrowly managing to duck before it fucked up his face more. “I don’t fucking know either, Lance.”

Lance backed up with his hands in the air. “Hey, I’m just trying to make sense of this.”

“Me too,” Keith muttered under his breath.

He turned back to the counter to finish putting away the groceries fiercely ignoring the way Lance’s eye practically bore holes into his body. 

“You think it was part of the murders happening?” Lance eventually asked.

“I don’t know.”

Lance groaned and ran a hand down his face. “Well, glad to see you survived I guess. Wish you could have staked the guy though.”

_ You and me both Lance,  _ Keith thought bitterly.  _ You and me both. _

  
  


 

There was another murder that night. A policeman who had been patrolling near the forest was found with his throat ripped out. What they didn’t mention is what Keith already knew. That the body was found almost completely drained of blood. That the mess of torn flesh across his neck wasn’t what killed the man. 

Keith also knew he might be the reason another body. The vampire he watched walk away could have easily been the one to murder the cop.

He wasn’t going to get away next time. Keith would make sure of it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a real nice comment from someone who said they lost respect for me for this fic lmao. They deleted but boy I laughed so hard.

**Author's Note:**

> I probably won't be updating this very often until I finished The Canvas Effect. Thanks for reading!!


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